Rewarding Diverse Groups of Employees

Incentive Magazine recently asked experts from various award companies for their tips on motivating diverse groups of participants.  These companies plan incentive programs for employees with a wide range of backgrounds, interests, roles and, of course, award preferences. While there are obvious differences in employee backgrounds, communication strategies and award delivery preferences, motivating this diversity is more common across these lines than you might think. 

The following list of tips that offers good insight into the things you need to keep in mind when planning your award programs.  Some are more along the common sense side, but others may give you some good food for thought. 

 Understand Your Audience

Survey your employees to find out what is meaningful to them. You will already know much of what they say, but could also come up with some good ideas to put in the program. 

You can take surveys to the extremes with audience persona development, segmentation and generational components, etc., but that type of employee research would not really be necessary for most programs

Effectively Launch the Program

Most companies don’t put as much emphasis on this phase of the reward program as they should. They assume that just the mention of the programs and “what’s in it for me is sufficient to gain excitement at the beginning.  But better launch preparation will provide dividends and actually allow you to spend less on the ongoing communications phase throughout. The importance that your participants put on your program will be in direct proportion the effort and importance you give the launch. 

Clear and Consistent Communications

Communications doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.  But you do need to take it out of your normal communications efforts and do it as often as appropriate for your organization. Communications about what employees can earn in rewards will be read and retained. If unsure how much and how often to communicate, err on the side of more and more frequently. In addition make sure your messaging is custom and speaks directly to the individual such as program standings, percentage towards qualification, and status updates etc.

Don’t Just Use Digital Communications

It’s natural to use digital as your first option, but old-fashioned printed pieces, posters etc are still very effective and enjoyed by most.  They are also often retained and shared with the family. 

Have a User-Friendly IT Platform

The award industry is loaded with the “best mouse traps” incentive software.  Our advice has always been “Don’t go hunting squirrels with a bear rifle.”  We estimate that UP TO 90% of the features in current software are either not or underutilized. It also needs to be easy to use. 

Recognize and Reward Teams

The incentive industry has known for years that you can get tremendous success by incorporating team awards in your program. Take advantage of it wherever possible, but use it in combination with individual awards.

If Using Travel, Tailor it to Your Employees 

If you using travel as the prominent award make sure you plan it with the participant in mind. Sun and fun can be highly motivation to the younger set, but not so much for older generations who may enjoy sightseeing and new experiences. And, don’t let your C-suite determine your destination based on where the executive wants to go. 

Don't Forget Gift Cards
When it comes to an award that appeals to everyone, gift cards offer the largest choice of any award in the industry. They have become by far the leading option for non-travel awards.

Make Sure It's Measurable 

This tip should actually be number one and not the last.  Without measurement you won’t have much motivation. Not having measurement is like bowling with a curtain in front the pins.  Make sure your objectives are measurable and communicate individual and team performance at the beginning, often in the middle and the end.

Individual or Team-Base Incentives? When to Use One, the Other or Both.

 

Twenty-five years ago, less than 20% of firms reported their workforce was engaged in one team or more at any given time.  Studies today show that teamwork and collaboration consume about 80% of the typical knowledge worker’s day. 

While most employees agree that team-based work is essential, only one-quarter prefer to work in teams versus alone.  Before the pandemic, 68% say the teams they work on were dysfunctional.   As business becomes increasingly global and cross-functional, silos are breaking down, connectivity is increasing, and teamwork is seen as a key to organizational success. 

When planning reward initiatives, designs to optimize team incentives is not immediately obvious or intuitive. The type of work that teams perform ranges widely and can change over time. For incentives to do good rather than harm, they should encourage the types of actions and behaviors appropriate to the work of the team in question – the right incentives at the right time. 

Things to consider when planning your team incentives might include:

 Whether the work of the team is highly-interdependent (tight team) versus loosely dependent (loose team).

 Organizations emphasize individual achievement when it comes to compensation, promotion, rewards and recognition because they’re comparatively easier to measure and administer.  Yet individual rewards might contribute very little to team dynamics and performance, or even detract from them.

 For a variety of reasons, team-based incentives and rewards may prove more difficult to administer (particularly in larger teams) because individuals come to their teams with different goals and contribute varying levels of effort and/or value.  Team rewards may even introduce issues where individuals let their teammates do most of the work while sharing equally in the reward. Adversely, individuals may have to give up personal recognition for the benefit of team performance.

There is a growing body of research that offers compelling evidence that where small teams engage in highly-interdependent work, team-based rewards drive better performance and outcomes than individual rewards.  This is possibly driven by intergroup competition.

 In small, highly-interdependent teams, hybrid rewards – which recognize team achievements and the behaviors and productivity of individual team members – can drive the best results of all. 

 As small teams become more interdependent, better communications and greater cohesion will result in better performance.

 When a team does not perform highly-interdependent work, greater communications and cohesion might actually harm performance; largely because it is time-consuming and unnecessary. Here, individual incentives are likely more effective.

 So do the research. Determine if you have tight teams (highly interdependent like a volleyball team or restaurant crew) or a loose team; whether you have small teams (10 or less) or large teams (more than 10 members.)

Small and tight teams are more effective at driving performance than large and loose teams.  For large and loose teams consider using Hybrid awards that reward the teams’ accomplishments as a whole and rewards the behavior and performance of the individuals as well.

  

What are the Most Important Drivers of Employee Performance?

 

10-24-21 What are the Most Important Drivers of Employee Performance?

 Recent research by the Cicero Group, a premier management consulting firm focused on implementing data-driven strategies for a broad mix of organizations across the globe, indicates that employee recognition is a driver of employee performance.

 We have seen similar research on the same subject for years, and frankly while the %’s of what the top drivers are always a little different…, the categories are much the same. 

Employee recognition is virtually always in the top third of drivers.  Why?  Because it works.  All companies seem to understand this, but their approach to how to implement these efforts differ widely from place to place.  

The Cicero research demonstrated that  one of the most effective ways to increase engagement is simply to recognize employees for their performance, in both formal and informal ways.

How to Design Effective Employee Recognition Programs

 

An employee recognition program can improve employee well-being, satisfaction, employee retention, and health. The impact of recognition can loom large over a company. 

According to 83% of HR leaders, employee recognition programs benefit organizational values, and 85% say they positively affect organizational culture. 

The challenge for companies is how to design an effective recognition program.  We deal with companies every day that tell us they are looking for ways to improve their current programs.  Many are stuck in an age-old “years of service” program that does little if anything to motivate change in the complex business climate of today. 

 When you are considering revamping your recognition program here are 5 keys to making it meaningful:

1.    Be relevant. Tie the award to specific achievement of certain objectives, either by                         individual or team.

2.     Timing is everything.  Recognition that arrives months later isn’t nearly as meaningful as recognition that is received immediately. Put systems in place to recognize employees and take advantage of the opportunity when it is presented.

3.     Recognition comes in many forms. As far as giving and receiving appreciation goes, everyone has a preference or style.  Many feel that it is best to ask the employees what they want, but a word of caution.  In over 90% of the time, the answer to this question will invariably be cash.  That may be what they say they want, but it’s not necessarily what will motivate them to incremental performance. 

4.     You don’t need to break the budget bank.  Thanking your employees for their daily efforts can motivate them just as much (and sometimes even more) as recognizing achievements.  The appreciation should also come from both managers and peers; some employees find recognition from peers to be even more motivating.

5.     Bringing it all together.  Employees appreciate the recognition that lets them know how their efforts contribute to the success of the company and their team is valued.  Employees gain a sense of security in their value to the company, motivating them to continue their great work. 

If employee recognition is important to your organization, you need to spend some time designing one that will produce results.  Unfortunately, most companies don’t take advantage of the professionals in the award industry who are available usually without charge (if you are buying their awards) to assist you in this regard. 

In difficult labor markets, hiring and retaining good employees is a constant issue.  You spend a tremendous amount of revenue on this, doesn’t it just make sense to spend a small fraction of that money on a recognition program that you measure to produce results?  With a well designed employee recognition program you can turn regular hires into game changers.

The Positive Effects of Properly Designed Employee Recognition Programs

 

Employee recognition awards have become a $46 Billion market.  In the last decade or so, employee research abounds that shows that employee recognition increases productivity, reinforces quality performance, promotes morale and builds positive relationships.  

A recent survey of employees conducted by “A Great Place to Work” found that teams scoring in the top 20% of engagement experience 59% fewer turnovers. 

However according to Gallup’s employee engagement statistics 53% of workers in the US are not engaged and up to 65% of employees haven’t received any form of recognition for good work in the last year.  It simply follows that when people aren’t appreciated for their hard work, they aren’t as inclined to continue to produce. 

Following are some thought-provoking statistics about employee recognition programs:

•  87% of company recognition programs emphasize tenure…

 While memorable recognition milestones such as 5-year, 10-year and 20-year work anniversaries are important, it is far more important to plan recognition efforts for your employees based on their results and behaviors

• Over 91% of HR professionals believe that recognition and rewards make employees more likely to stay.
•  An employee who has been recognized is 63% more likely to stay at his or her current job within the next three to six months

 Plan Your Recognition Efforts Around:

• Recognizing an employee going above and beyond to help a customer
• Providing avenues for peer recognition allowing your employees to acknowledge the efforts of their support teams
• Attract new employees
• Raise average ticket price
• Achieving short term operational goals
• Encourage developing of revenue generating or cost reduction ideas and ways to achieve them
• Drive operational excellence
• Measure training effectiveness
• Reduce order error

More Stats From Recent Surveys

•  A lack of recognition and engagement was contributing to 44% of employees changing jobs 
• Business productivity increases by 31% when employees are happy
• Recognition improves employee engagement productivity and performance by 14
• 92% of workers are more likely to repeat a specific action after receiving recognition for it.
• More than 40% of employed Americans feel that if they were recognized more often, they would put more energy into their work
• Employees mentioned that interesting work (74%) and recognition and rewards (69%) as the top factors that keep them at their current employers
• There are many ways in which you can recognize employees besides just money...in fact, 65% of employees prefer non-cash incentives.

For many years the incentive industry had a very difficult time measuring the effectiveness of employee recognition programs.  With the preponderance of employee research that give us stats as shown above, the benefits of a valued workforce are many and varied.  For one thing, appreciated employees report increased job satisfaction. That satisfaction is itself tied to increased loyalty and lower turnover — and that, of course, leads to higher overall productivity.

 

What Makes Work Meaningful — Or Meaningless?

Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life.

 A recent study by MIT Sloan Management Review showed:

 Meaningfulness was more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction.

 Researchers anticipated that the data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers. Instead, the research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

 The research aimed to uncover how and why people find their work meaningful. The study showed that meaningfulness was often associated with a sense of pride and achievement at a job well done, whether they were professionals or manual workers.

 “Those who could see that they had fulfilled their potential, or who found their work creative, absorbing, and interesting, tended to perceive their work as more meaningful than others. Accordingly, receiving praise, recognition, or acknowledgment from others mattered a great deal.”

The Five Qualities of Meaningful Work

The study also revealed five unexpected features of meaningful work; in these features might explain the fragile and intangible nature of meaningfulness.

 1. Self-Transcendent

 Individuals tended to experience their work as meaningful when it mattered to others more than just to themselves. Their work was meaningful when it showed the impact and relevance of their work on the individuals, the group or the community. 

 2. Poignant

 The experience of meaningful work can be poignant rather than purely euphoric. The experience of coping with challenging conditions led to a sense of meaningfulness far greater than they would have experienced dealing with straightforward, everyday situations.

 3. Episodic

A sense of meaningfulness arose in an episodic rather than a sustained way. It seemed that no one could find their work consistently meaningful, but rather that an awareness that work was meaningful arose at peak times that were generative of strong experiences.

 4. Reflective

 Meaningfulness was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.

 5. Personal

 Other feelings about work, such as engagement or satisfaction, tend to be just that: feelings about work. Work that is meaningful, on the other hand, is often understood by people not just in the context of their work but also in the wider context of their personal life experiences. 

Are You Actually Willing to Empower Your Employees?

 

Everyone seems to agree and supports the idea of empowering your employees.  Leaders want to empower their people. But while empowering sounds good and beneficial, not many leaders are actually empowering their people. 

Much of the frustration that people have today with business is that no one seems to be empowered to get anything done.  Why?  Simply because the reality is that giving up control is insanely difficult. In the business world, empowerment can mean giving up control of tasks, embracing an employees’ suggestions, or even using ideas that come from outside your current company.  We are all guilty of not wanting to give up power. 

In a study conducted by Leadership IQ entitled “The State of Leadership Development” some interesting findings were as follows:

• Only 29% of employees say their leader is always open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve performance.
• Only 16% say their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success.
• Only 20% say their leader always takes an active role in helping employees to grow and develop their full potential.
• Only 29% say their leader’s vision for the future always seems to be aligned with the organization's.
• Only 27% say their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.
• Only 26% say their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
• Only 20% say their leader always shares the challenges we're facing.

 If you truly want to empower your employees, consider the following three statements:

When employees give me alternatives, I avoid telling them which one I want. Instead, I ask for their suggestions. 

I’m open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve our team’s performance.

I encourage and recognize my employees’ suggestions for improvement.

If you are brutally honest with yourself while considering these statements you’ll discover where you are on empowerment or if you struggle to empower. 

 

Don’t Lose Your Best People

 

According to research conducted by Ipsos Research at the end of 2020, about 1 in 4 U.S. employees planned to leave their employer as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. 

 

According to Engagement and Retention report, presented by the Achievers Workshop Institute in early 2021, 52% of employees surveyed plan to seek new employment in 2021. 

 

Employees are most likely to leave a current job for one with better compensation and benefits or better work/life balance.  The majority of employees cited burnout as the main reason. 

 

Can you sustain your business if you lose 25% to 50% of your employees?  It is inevitable that you will see a lot of employee movement.  The type of employees you lose will differ by industry, but no one can afford to lose their best people.

 

There are some steps you can take now to mitigate the loss and retain many of your important people.  Here are a couple: 

 

First and foremost, identify all of the top performers that you don’t want to lose and ask your managers to have quality communication meetings with them at least twice a month.  Get as good a sense of their job satisfaction as you can.

 

Then, listen to the employee challenges and look for solutions.  Catch unsatisfied performers before they start looking for and applying for jobs.  Once they start doing that your chance of keeping them are much lower. 

 

If you take just these two steps you will be well on your way to retaining your top employees, and those retention efforts will help in keeping employees in general. 

 

Drive Wellness with Consistent Recognition Awards

 

At the beginning of every year, wellness is a top resolution for many folks.  In fact, research has shown that losing weight and becoming fit are the most common resolutions made for the New Year.  

Changing to a healthy lifestyle is a behavior issue, and a tough one at that.  It’s difficult to start and even more difficult to maintain changing to a healthy lifestyle.  The gyms are full in January and February and by the end of April, back to their normal levels.  It’s natural for people to stop doing what they don’t want to do without some positive reinforcement along the way.  

As many companies have done, consider using consistent and continuous reinforcement along the way.  Minimal gift card awards are idea to promote wellness efforts and keep people involved.  The economic benefits of a long term healthy lifestyle far outweigh the small cost necessary to keep an employee motivated to achieve success. 

We have several award systems available that are easy to implement and administer.  One may be just the one for you. 

Use the Power of Positive Thinking To Get Back to Normal

 While Norman Vincent Peale (1998-1994) was a prolific writer, “The Power of Positive Thinking” was by far his most widely read work.  The book was first published in 1952. Now, over 60 years later, advances in cognitive psychology and neuroscience have added some scientific evidence to his theory. 

These recent advances in cognitive psychology and neuroscience have shown, as the scientists say, “how our life’s ups and downs activate different neural circuits in the brain and create rapid changes in a range of important neurotransmitters.”  In other words changes in brain chemistry can alter how we think which then relates to how we feel and then how we behave.

Consider the following conclusions that were derived from a large meta-analysis combining the findings of over 225 academic studies on employees with a positive psychological wellbeing:

• They have on average 31% higher productivity  
• Their sales are 37% higher
• Their creativity is three times higher
• Are highly predictive to have long-term physical health
• Are less likely to have elevated levels of stress and stress related illness
• Avoid the anxiety that triggers depression

Simply put, these studies point to the fact that negative emotions that are caused by anxiety, fear, anger, stress, self-doubt etc. closes our brain off from the outside world where positive emotions broaden the sense of possibility and opens our mind to more positive options. 

Is it fair to assume that the most engaged employees will be your most positive employees? And building a positive culture will provide some long term positive results.

Certainly, the pandemic and aftermath have made it very difficult to maintain a positive environment when there are so many factions pulling us apart.  But don’t discount the power of being positive whenever and where ever you can in the workplace (and at home for that matter).  It works and can help us all get back the “normal”.

Do You Have a Culture of Recognition?

Recognition has always been the heart of employee engagement.  In fact it might even be the soul as well.  Nothing does more for an employee in the short term that recognizing their performance, either formally or informally....with any kind of physical award (either large of small).

The Internet lists the Top Ten  Employee Recognition Systems.  To name just a few, companies with such cute names as Motivosity, Guusto, Fond and Nectar all have the bells and whistles that will be a sure fire way in recognizing your employees to improve their performance and increase their engagement.  And our guess is that they will all work in one way or another.  They all tout a new and better way to improve your culture.  

What they won't do is instill a culture of "Thank You" within your company that comes as natural as breathing.  That has to come from executives above, the managers in the middle and the employees themselves throughout.  We can all feel a company who has this culture.  It permeates all that they do, we feel it when we do business with them.  We keep going back.

Saying "thank you" doesn't come naturally to people, it is something that has to be coached, it has to be repeated over and over again, and something that has to be sincere and be measured.  Employees and managers alike need to know when they are doing it, how well, and when they are not.

Take the test, spend a day watching interactions between your management and your employees and just count the times when a sincere recognition of performance or "thank you" takes place,  At the end of the day you'll know if you do or don't have a culture of recognition and to what degree.

Rewards and Recognition Will Positively Impact Employee Engagement

Over the last decade employee engagement levels have barely budged since Gallup started tracking them.  This flat result comes in spite of extensive research identifying the logical links between the engagement and organizational success.  Maybe more importantly, it comes in spite of the billions spent on motivational speakers, leadership gurus, coaching, engagement surveys, technology, communication, training, rewards and recognition.  So where have we gone wrong? 

The state of employee engagement today might be best described by using the hiking term “false summit.”  That’s the disappointment one feels when reaching the crest of a ridge, only to discover that the real summit looms high above.  The good news is that despite the apparent lack of progress, the path to significant improvement in employee engagement remains, as more and more executives have a greater appreciation of the role of engaged people.  

The Question Is Always How? 

In decades of working with clients in the incentive rewards and recognition industry, we know the easiest way to begin a strategic connection between employees and the engagement needed to deliver your brand promises is to implement the principles contained in the employee behavior model. Executives, especially in HR are aware of the principles that great psychologists such as Watson, Skinner, Maslow and Thorndyke taught.  But it seems that the traditional thinking surrounding behavior has been set aside in favor of new approaches of the consultants of today that permeate the C-Suite. Through decades of implementing successful employee award systems that followed the simple approach of the behavior model, we know you can produce results. 

Employee Recognition Will Produce Results 

If you design and implement the right employee award system you will definitely engage employees. You don’t have to make it any more complicated than that.  

The sense of a false summit comes from the fact that the industry is replete with gurus delivering leadership advice, various performance apps, wellness programs, feedback surveys, all types of rewards and recognition items, and other measures to engage employees. HR and related technology trade shows and conferences feature education topics and exhibits on all manner of ways to engage employees—and yet employee engagement levels remain stuck well below 50%.  Why? 

People come to work each day because you’ve provided a contract of income to get them there.  But this contract doesn’t necessarily motivate them to perform at their highest level once they are there.  That’s where the connection to improved performance by implementing a well-structured reward and recognition system should begin.  

Where Have All the Experts Gone? 

The Reward and Recognition Industry began employee engagement long before it was ever titled that.  The successful incentive rewards houses made large investments in expertise in all the facets of the behavior model, and gave that expertise away in order sell their commodities of merchandise and travel.  Those companies became the floor upon which the entire recognition and reward business was built.  But the industry has changed, the new companies didn’t bring the expertise and now merely sell the rewards as consequences to behavior without regard to the other behavior pieces.  Studies from the Incentive Research Foundation clearly show that the vast majority of companies never look at their award supplier as someone who can assist them in building a strategic connection with their employees.  We believe that’s the first place you should look. 

Some Problems Still Exist 

If you want to break the 50% engagement barrier, you need to think in terms of systems not silos.  When you entertain experts, who remain firmly planted in their own curriculum you will not be able to connect all the behavioral dots.  When was the last time you had a training company present measurement and feedback coupled with rewards as part of their solution? When was the last time you had a technology company present an app or IT solution which included communications, feedback analysis and rewards necessary to make it effective?  When was the last time you had a recognition or awards salesperson concerned about anything other than how many awards you needed and when?  

There is no one cure-all for employee engagement.  It has so many facets and levels that it is difficult for any company to achieve.  The ones that have it didn’t get there overnight, and are constantly tweaking the pieces.  We’ve watched companies grapple with how to begin and spend countless hours arguing over the important pieces that make up the foundation and how to start.  If you want to delve into the world of employee engagement, look through the lens of the behavior model and you’ll find the best way to build it for yourself. You’ll know what pieces you already have, which ones you do well and which ones are missing, and if they are working in unison to produce your desired results.

These Blunders Will Damage Employee Recognition Programs

We’ve researched hundreds of employee recognition and incentive programs over the years.   We often have prospective clients who say they have used employee recognition programs in the past and the programs just don’t seem to work for them.  They say they get relatively little return for their investment and these programs are often the first budgets to be cut when economic times are bad.  Frankly, in most cases executives are completely in the right to discontinue these programs.  

When recognition programs don’t produce desired results for your company the reasons why will typically fall into one of these categories. 

Track Your Performance

Lack of measurement is without a doubt the biggest mistake companies make when they implement an employee recognition effort.  Set the expectations of what you want them to do and then give honest measurement of how you are performing.  Not all recognition will have objective measurement, but surely the collective actions of employees against a set of values can be seen.  You can virtually follow the line between what was recognized and what happened because of that action.  It does take some effort, but the results of that measurement will be readily available when your executives ask you what you’re receiving for the time and money spent.  Anyone who sat in a budget meeting to retain or increase a recognition budget knows the importance of this.

Let Your Employees Choose What They Want

Don’t use awards that you think your employees want, or what appeal to you, or your executives or what your award vendor says they want.   Within reason, let your employees choose.  People are far more receptive when the award is what fits their own needs and wants, and that want can change constantly. 

Keep Everyone Informed

Good communications is the heart and soul of any great employee recognition/incentive effort. Showing what individual employees are doing to receive recognition makes it easier to motivate more employees to do the same. 

Involve Upper Management

We are constantly perplexed when company executives are not as involved in these efforts as much as possible.  If it wasn’t for the heartfelt work of the human resource professionals, many programs would wither and die. Executives stand to benefit the most from proud, enthusiastic engaged employees.  Get your executives to be your cheerleaders and provide ongoing involvement and enthusiastic support.  If you have any kind of spot awards, make sure they do some of it.  

How to motivate Your Remote Team During These Stressful Times

From a recent edition of Incentive Magazine comes these simple yet effective ways to acknowledge and value your team members now and after the pandemic.    

Meaningful recognition is more important than ever with more employees now working remotely and with the other restrictions and regulations in force.  The job market is sure to change and many good employees will fluctuate on where to spend their future.  You can keep them with some concerted recognition planning.

1.  Show more care and concern

Many people are dealing with serious personal and financial issues right now.  Show them that you care, drill down into physical and emotional well-being offering support where possible.  Sometimes just listening can make a difference.

2.  Connect with them

Some people have a hard time being alone right now, so reach out and connect with them as often as you can.  Loneliness is a fear that real. 

3.  Create an online employee community

Set up a social recognition program or an online bulletin board for employees to express what they're grateful for. Each person can share a "success of the week." For some people, coworkers are the only "community" they belong to.

4.  Share positive news

Share positive stories on the company and industry organization with your team to boost their spirits. Bad news can travel fast; make sure the good news travels ahead of it.  Some people are just not feeling very happy right now.

5.  Honor people along their work journey

People are pulling out all the stops with creativity, new ideas, and getting the work done. Take time to appreciate them for who they are and recognize what they do. Some people's work has drastically changed or diminished.

6.  Be mindful of the stages of grief

Staff may go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance when their workplace implements changes and job cuts. Some people will experience survivor's grief if still working. Acknowledge their emotions.

7.  Offer support to worried staff

Many of your employees know someone with COVID-19 or have family dealing with serious health issues. Make sure your employee assistance program and/or counselors are available to staff.  

8.  Add cheer to your meetings 

Are your Zoom meetings feeling rote right now? Liven them up with  upbeat music, a chant or cheer at the beginning or end of the session.

9.  Make time for recognition

With many new and additional tasks on your plate, it's easy to neglect employee recognition. Make it a priority to schedule time each day to give thanks and praise to a member of your team, via an online recognition program, personal call or a handwritten note.

10. Hold virtual celebrations 

The show must go on and you should continue to mark achievements and milestones in these stressful times. With the pandemic preventing live events, get creative: organize online virtual celebrations, with special goodies and gifts delivered to people's homes, so everyone can participate.

Great opportunities surround us every day.  Don’t lose them; use them to make that proverbial glass of lemonade from the lemons we’ve all had to deal with.

Help Your Remote Employees from Becoming Disengaged

Since the onset of Covid-19, many employees had to begin to work remotely.  In addition, the prevalence for working from home has also increased in recent years.  This may be a novel concept for some, but it could become a the reality for many.

Whether you are new to having employees working remotely or have veteran telecommuters, employees often begin to feel disconnected from their colleagues and organization when they spend the majority of their working hours logging in from home. Research shows that even in the best of times, only 19% of employees consider themselves ‘very engaged,’ so the question for remote employees is how to keep them feeling content and being productive?

Stay connected through Culture Continuity

Maintaining a consistent organizational culture for remote employees plays an important role in keeping them engaged.  The old adage can easily run true…”out of sight, out of mind,” but it doesn’t have to.  Here are some things you can do to help.

Through video conferencing, extend in-office experiences such as yoga, mindful, and company-wide meetings. These shared experiences help colleagues to feel more connected despite their physical distance.

Strive to maintain your culture of recognition

Employee recognition is a primary driver of engagement. In a Harvard Business Review report that studied “The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance,” 72% of respondents agreed that recognition given for high performers had a significant impact on employee engagement. In addition, current industry research has shown that up 82% of employees would like more recognition at work.

In the month following the onset of the pandemic, one recognition company noted a 14% increase in the number of recognitions sent across its platform. This demonstrates that many organizations are getting it right during times of crisis by increasing the frequency of peer-to-peer and leader-led recognition.  Additionally you can look for new ways to recognize milestones outside of performance, such as birthdays or personal achievements.

The basics of a well implemented recognition program are vastly important during trying times. Make sure you use sincerity in recognizing your colleagues. Leaders must lead by example, recognizing employees for living the organization’s values, supporting their team members, hitting prescribed targets, etc. Propagate the recognition using executives on down throughout the organization.  It is especially important to allow for peer to peer recognition which can be the strongest of all. 

Measure activity

Whether your telecommuting continues to grow or your business goes back to normal, make sure you measure employee activity during the cycle.  You may see increased productivity within some departments and challenges within others. Watch for attendance at company-led virtual social events and examine their impact on overall engagement. Collect as much data as you can to understand what the ideal state of employee engagement looks like at your organization—whether it’s in-office or working from home. This data is invaluable to evaluate how heavily your culture is tied to being in the office and to understand how best to maintain continuity during organizational change and times of uncertainty.

How the Four Drive Theory Works Within an Incentive Program

“Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices” published in 2002 by Professor Lawrence and Dean Nohria of Harvard Business School discusses how 4 biological drives can effect employee behavior on the job.  Here we take a look at how these drives might be incorporated into incentive programs to drive performance.

The Drive to Acquire Stuff & Status
 

Incentive programs typically use a variety of non-cash awards that employees can earn for achieving certain objectives.  The well designed program will allow the winners to accumulate awards from the initial phases thru completion.  The employees are acquiring personal and luxury items they wouldn’t typically buy for themselves, including trips, deluxe merchandise, gift cards to special places etc. 

The Drive to Bond

Often they are on teams working together and aspiring to reach a higher status. As the program goes on you can see employees discovering all sorts of ways to enjoy the fruits of their labors together. By sharing rewards with family and friends, they are increasing their status in the eyes of their peers.

The Drive to Create

Programs can be anchored with a focus on connecting achievement with individual passions and pursuits. People desire to creatively contribute to something bigger than themselves and can satisfy the desire for purpose and meaning.

The Drive to Defend

The program is standardized, making it a fair and equitable motivator influencing human behavior. The earning rules are clear, and employees are willing to cooperate with one another to achieve results and foster teamwork.